Music notes: Building better band names

Sometimes it seems like all the good rock-band names really are taken. For proof, check out a typical White Rabbit lineup from a recent weekend  Autumn Black, Betrayed by Honor, Destruction Evolution, As Days Grow Darker, Fatal Death (actually, that’s pretty good), After the Burial, Burning the Masses, Arms of the Antagonist, 11th Massacre, Upon a Burning Body and … you get the picture.

Anything that connotes death and destruction, with a fantasy/medieval hook, wins out. That’s why a couple of names from the less-is-more school of thought jumped out at me as I was proofing the rock-club listings for this week’s Weekender.

 Bowel, Friday at Bond’s 007.

That’s it. Just Bowel. Not Constricted Bowel of Death or In the Bowels of Mordor or Satan’s Bloody Bowel Movement (gross!). The Houston band is part of a show called “Slave to the Metal Tour.” For folks who like the death/destruction/medieval school of band names, the lineup also includes Deadpoool (from S.A.), Paegan and Perish the Land.

What? Not scary enough? You’d prefer Foaming Rabies-Ravaged Bison From Hell? Well, have you ever seen a bison up close? Or had one stand between you and the bathroom in Yellowstone? Or hear one breathing right outside your tent? Plenty scary. They aren’t exactly cute, furry, overgrown cows, you know.

For folks who like the overkill school of thought, rest uneasy. This weekend’s rock-club lineup also includes Mammoth Grinder, Scum Allegiance, A Corpse Vanishes and Toxic Vampire. Although I spy a band called Evil Come, Evil Go. A (presumably) metal band with a sense of humor? Almost as good as Bowel. Or Bison.